Exam results release

[Chonal Atresia]

Has anybody heard when the results for the '09 Sleep Medicine Board Exam are being released (or if they already have)? Tne ABIM website said within 3 months but results from the '07 exam were released at about 2 months (about now).

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[michaelrack]

I've heard that the american board of psych and neuro is mailing out the test results approx jan 28. haven't heard anything about the abim.

 

[Bobblehead]

ABIM released results via email and the website on 1/28. The AASM member boards are already abuzz it appears.

 

[neurologist]

ABPN website says results mailed out on 1/28, but I'm not sure if it comes through them or the ABIM. Diplomate listing is not yet posted on the ABPN website.

 

[neurolddoc]

I talked to the ABPN yesterday. Results were mailed but will not be posted online in the physician portfolio section of their web site. The ABIM test takers did get results online.

 

[Chonal Atresia]

American Board of Otolaryngology e-mailed their diplomates with their test results on the 28th.

 

[Chonal Atresia]

American Board of Otolaryngology e-mailed their diplomates with their test results on the 28th.

 

[neurologist]

Well, I must say, that was a damn painful test. Happily, I passed. Looks like a low-ish pass rate again (78% overall, 66% for repeat takers). Wish the best for anyone else who took it.

For those who are planning to take it in the future, I wish I had some meaningful advice on what to study, but a lot of the test questions were really out there. Maybe they ended up throwing out a lot of the questions, 'cause at the end of the test day, I was pretty sure I had tanked.

Now I have to start thinking about my neuro recert in a couple years . . . damn board exam treadmill never ends . . .

 

[Bobblehead]

Did they break it down by pathway again? i.e. self-certification vs. prior ABSM certification vs. fellowship? As I recall in 2007 the prior ABSM and fellowship pathways scored much better than the self-certification.

 

[neurologist]

Did they break it down by pathway again? i.e. self-certification vs. prior ABSM certification vs. fellowship? As I recall in 2007 the prior ABSM and fellowship pathways scored much better than the self-certification.

I didn't have that data on my score report. Maybe the ABIM or ABPN may put it on their website at some point.

 

[michaelrack]

I copied this from the AASM discussion forums:

"ABPN Description of The Score Report
Which came with the result in Mail.Please read for detail.
2009 Certification Examination in Sleep Medicine Pass rate
First takers 2141 78 % Pass
Repeaters 371 66% Pass
Total Group 2512 76 % Pass"

 

[Bobblehead]

I found what I was thinking of. It was mentioned at the ACCP review course. Article is here: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2576318/

People chuckled during the course when the speaker commented that thankfully prior ABSM diplomates did relatively well (93%) compared to formal training (82%). The practice pathway pass rate stand out in that background at 59% although that group represented more than half of the test takers.

Development and Results of the First ABMS Subspecialty Certification Examination in Sleep Medicine

Table 2:

Pathway N Percent of Total Number Passing Percent Passing Mean SD
Practice Experience 1,034 55% 605 59% 462 102
ABSM Certification 683 36% 636 93% 552 68
Formal Training 165 9% 135 82% 525 82

 

[neurolddoc]

I had a bad feeling after the test, as I thought that many of the questions came down to two plausible answers after eliminating clearly wrong responses. From there it seemed like an exercise in guessing what they were thinking, such as one question where the 2 choices were using a higher than approved dose of a medication for a certain condition versus a non-approved medication with significant addiction risk. I was fully anticipating getting about 60% correct.

To my surprise I actually did much better. I'm sure a number of questions got discarded, but I have seen no data about that for this exam

 

[CyberGuru]

My Result reports(Thank God I Pass)

Medical Content Area (200 item)

They also reported how many question and how many percent correct I scored correctly in each section.

Exam had many question ambiguous.

They seems have discarded 40 qustions,why ???

 

[Bobblehead]

In other ABIM exams there are always a number of questions that are being trialed for an upcoming exam. They're experimental and they use the results (i.e. correct/incorrect response patterns) to evaluate whether these should be scored on future exams. For example if there are two answers that receive the majority of the responses it's probably a decent question to differentiate passing from non-passing individuals. If every answer was chosen in equal proportions the test writer may need to rewrite the question since it's clear people were merely guessing.

 

[neurologist]

Exam had many question ambiguous.

They seems have discarded 40 qustions,why ???

Your first point pretty much answers the second question.

Generally, I find it a good rule of thumb that if a question on a standardized exam is totally unreasonable, it's probably an "experimental question" that they are trying out for the first time and will probably not count in the final score.

They basically don't count all the "experimental questions" or the ones that a large percentage of test takers got wrong, which also suggests a problem with the question.